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Parshah Summary – P’shat
A Levite named Korakh, together with Dathan, Abiram and 250 rebels, incite a mutiny against Moses, challenging his leadership and his granting of the kehunah (priesthood) to Aaron and his sons. Moses instructs the rebels to offer special incense in the morning, and that Hashem will make the truth known. The next day, the rebels offer incense in their fire pans. The earth opens and swallows up their tents, and a fire consumes those with the incense.
The people rise up and complain bitterly about the deaths of the rebels, and a plague begins to move through the entire community. Aaron stops the plague by offering his own incense. Moses instructs a chief from each tribe to bring their staves, and Aaron’s staff miraculously blossoms and brings forth almonds, showing that he is the chosen one for the kahuna. Finally, Hashem instructs the Children of Israel in a number of offerings which they are to bring from each crop of grain, wine and oil, as well as all firstborn sheep, cattle, and other specified gifts, to the kohanim (priests). Among the offerings, the “Covenant of Salt” is mentioned, which is the origin of dipping the Challah in salt at the Shabbat table today…
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וַיִּקַּ֣ח קֹ֔רַח... וַיִּֽקָּהֲל֞וּ עַל־מֹשֶׁ֣ה וְעַֽל־אַהֲרֹ֗ן... Korakh separated himself… And they gathered against Moses and Aaron… - BaMidbar (Numbers) 16:3, Parshat Korakh
A disciple of the Baal Shem Tov once asked, “Why is it that I can usually feel the Divine Presence when I am praying or learning, but occasionally it vanishes and there is only a sense of remoteness and alienation?”
The Baal Shem explained: “When parents teach their children to walk, they sometimes hold out their hands so that the child can grab on and toddle toward the parent. But at some point, the parent will withdraw their hands and step back, giving the child the chance to toddle toward them without holding on, so that in time they can learn to walk on their own.” How can we learn to “walk on our own” in the spiritual sense? First, it is helpful to regard our spiritual success as a Form of Grace, not something to which we are entitled. Then, to the degree we can regard our success as Grace, we can also come to regard its absence as Grace, though of a different kind. Just as a wise parent or teacher will sometimes withdraw out of love, to give space to the child or student, so too the absence of inner peace can be a reminder and encouragement to practice with more focus, more consistency, more sincerity. Most importantly, it gives us the opportunity to meditate in a deeper way, to make ourselves into the witnessing Presence that beholds the moment as it is, however it appears. In this way, the experience of God’s “withdrawal” becomes an even deeper experience of God’s Presence. But to do this, we must overcome the tendency to feel entitled, to feel that God “owes” us something. Because from that egoic point of view, it is we who are then withdrawing – not out of love, but out of anger, resentment, entitlement: וַיִּקַּ֣ח קֹ֔רַח – Korakh withdrew himself… Literally, “Korakh took,” meaning he took himself away from Moses and Aaron, accusing them of unfairness. כׇל־הָֽעֵדָה֙ כֻּלָּ֣ם קְדֹשִׁ֔ים וּבְתוֹכָ֖ם יְהֹוָ֑ה... “All of the assembly is holy and the Divine is among them…” Korakh’s argument is true and convincing – that’s not the problem. The problem is the intention: rather than bringing everyone together in an equality of holiness, his aim is to prop up his own ego. And so it is with us. We complain: “This is not the experience I should be having; I deserve better.” It is true – we do deserve better. But God has “withdrawn” in order to show us: the way we relate to our experience is in our own hands. Whether God’s withdrawal is cruel or an act of love is actually in our own hands. How do you choose love? Attend to your feelings; don’t let your mind be seduced by them. That’s it. Attending to your own mind is much more effective and efficient than trying to control it. By simply acknowledging the presence of selfish or aggressive or entitled thoughts and feelings, you dis-identify from them; then they are no longer “you.” When you become present, thoughts and feelings are nothing more than fleeting experience, temporary forms of consciousness – and they can no longer control you. Ego vanishes. And this too is a kind of closeness through withdrawal. When you give your thoughts and feelings the space to just be, without trying to control them, you become free. This kind of separation is simultaneously the deepest intimacy – intimacy with your own being. And in this intimacy, we come to know ourselves as the intimacy, as the open field of Presence which effortlessly transmutes everything it touches. In the spirit of Korakh’s “taking,” may we fully “take” the only power we truly have: the power to be with what is, meaning: to be the space of awareness within which this moment unfolds…
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